


Please Stop Stealing

by Cheshire_Hearts



Series: Prowl Week 2020 [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Family Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Humor, M/M, Pranks, Prowl Week 2020, Prowl is surrounded by criminals, he's fine with it though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:28:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23783170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheshire_Hearts/pseuds/Cheshire_Hearts
Summary: Prowl catches the twins stealing Energon as younglings. Instead of turning them in, he decides to care for them. They are surprisingly well behaved for tiny criminals and Prowl does everything he can to hide the fact he has tiny criminals living with him.
Relationships: Jazz/Prowl
Series: Prowl Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709890
Comments: 9
Kudos: 142
Collections: Prowl Week





	Please Stop Stealing

**Author's Note:**

> My take of Prowl Week 2020 Day 3's prompt: Law/Crime.  
> It's cracky and should've been done earlier, but dog got sprayed by skunk and needed to be bathed...

Day cycles in Iacon were overcrowded in a way Praxus had never been. Prowl hated every second of it. Partly because he missed Praxus, but mostly because Iaconians were the exact opposite of Praxians. Prowl was sick and tired of being jostled and knocked into by other mechs on a daily basis on his way to and from the precinct he worked at. He was sure someone had groped his doorwing the other day too, but he hadn’t been able to find the mech in the after-work crowd. Somehow the enforcer decals on his wings and shoulders went unnoticed by everyone around him.

Exhaustion clung to Prowl’s frame, weighing him down more than it normally did. The thick crowds and his longing for crystal spires and wide avenues were probably the main culprits. Poor recharge cycles definitely played a part in it all too. A much larger mech bumped into him, sending him stumbling into another mech. Prowl couldn’t see whose pede he stepped on and was swept away in the growing crowd by the time the mech yelled at him.

Relief washed over him when his optics landed on an open park tucked away between a few buildings. He pushed and shoved his way out of the crowd and stumbled off the sidewalk. Even the park was busy, but it was a different kind of busy than the street had been. Prowl could also tell it was a lower-income park from the way it had been designed; almost like it was a second thought since there wasn’t enough room for another building to fit safely between the others surrounding it. Prowl noticed the other buildings were run-down apartments and there was a small stall set up by the central fountain that was selling energon treats. 

He walked a little ways in until he found a relatively clean bench away from where the younglings and sparklings were playing. He sat down and let out a heavy vent of air. The noise was muffled, but still present enough to be an annoyance.

He sat for a long while, watching what he could see of the crowd moving past the park’s entrance and occasionally watching the younglings play together. No one seemed to notice him or even be bothered by his presence; although, he did catch a few of the sparklings looking at his doorwings. Whenever one did, he’d flick or bounce them on his back and watch their reactions with a small smile on his face.

Prowl checked his chronometer and then looked at the street to see if it was any less busy now. The crowds had mostly dispersed by that point and Prowl stood with a stretch, letting his doorwings fan out behind him. It was then he noticed a bright red youngling peeking out of a crystal bush near the energon stall. Prowl watched the youngling look around before disappearing again. A very similar golden-yellow youngling emerged from the crystal and darted behind the stall while the mech in charge wasn’t paying attention. The red youngling darted out after the other one.

A few kliks passed and then both darted back to their cover, servos full of treats, with the vendor none-the-wiser to the theft. Prowl sighed. He walked over to the crystal, letting his doorwings fan out to pick up more sensory input. It was easy to find where the younglings had gone to; they weren’t being quiet since they’d successfully gotten their treats. 

The alleyway they’d chosen to hide in was crowded by trash cans and crates, and Prowl maneuvered as quietly as he could through it. He heard soft voices ahead of him, and his doorwings picked up the sounds of the youngling’s systems. It was almost too easy to sneak up on them from behind. Prowl reached over the crate they’d hid behind and plucked both up without a second thought. They yelped and started trying to twist out of his grip. Prowl held tightly to their scruff bars and pulled them to his side of the crate.

“Let go of us, you creep!” The red one yelled as Prowl turned them around. The golden one glared daggers at him and snarled.

Prowl blinked and looked between the two. They were clearly twins and much younger than he thought they were originally. Prowl frowned at them.

“I will if you return what you stole from that vendor and return to your Creators,” Prowl said firmly.

The red one snorted. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, mech. Plus, we don’t have creatures to return to.”

Prowl could only stare at them. They were orphans, but they were so young. “You should be at a youngling center then.”

“Ha! Yeah right! We’re never going back there.” 

“And why not?” Prowl asked, genuinely curious. He wasn’t familiar with Iacon’s youngling centers, but the ones in Praxus had always had a good reputation.

“Because it was horrible!” The red mechling crossed his arms and glared up at Prowl. “They tried to separate us and yelled at us all the time.”

Prowl’s frown deepened. “Why would they separate you? You are twins.”

They both looked at Prowl as if he’d grown another doorwing. “You can’t be serious?” 

“Twins are bad luck,” the golden youngling said quietly.

“That’s ridiculous!” Prowl snapped and both flinched back, but their optics had widened in surprise not fear. “Twins are not bad luck. Whoever told you that?”

They looked between each other then. “It’s what everyone says.”

The golden twin nodded. Prowl frowned and watched them. He thought for a moment, frown deepening and causing the twins to wiggle in his grip. He realized belatedly he was still dangling them in front of him. Part of him wanted to put them down on the crate so they could be more comfortable, but the other part wasn’t sure they would stay if he did.

“You have nowhere to go then?” He asked.

“No,” they said in unison.

Prowl nodded. “It’s settled then. You can stay with me and I will care for you; however!” he had to raise his voice when they started to protest. They quieted down when he gave them a look. “You have to return what you stole from the vendor. I will handle it and make sure you don’t get in trouble.”

“Sure, but how will you make sure of that? Plus we don’t know anything about you. You could be a creep who kills younglings.” The red twins said and glared at Prowl.

Prowl resisted the urge to roll his optics. Instead, he flared his doorwings up so the twins could see them and the Enforcer decals he wore. “I am an Enforcer.”

“Yeah, okay then.” The red one murmured.

Prowl set them down and kept a close optic on them as they collected the treats. He followed them closely through the alleyway and the park. The vendor wasn’t happy, but Prowl promised he’d deal with them and then they were heading out of the park. Thankfully, the streets were mostly empty by that point and it took them no time at all to reach the apartment complex Prowl lived in.

They stared with wide optics at the building, everything in the brightly lit lobby, and pushed their faces against the glass of the elevator on their way up to Prowl’s floor. They kept staring even inside Prowl’s sparsely furnished apartment. He let them wander around and check things out as he prepared three cubes of mid-grade.

“I have Energon ready,” he called and heard them come running from one of the rooms. 

They climbed onto the chairs at the table as Prowl set the cubes down. The cubes barely touched the tabletop before the twins grabbed them and started drinking. Prowl frowned and wondered how hungry they’d been before he’d caught them. How long had they gone without any, how many meals had they missed? And then he realized he didn’t know their names. He’d been so caught up in trying to figure out what to do with them he hadn’t bothered to ask them.

“What are your designations?”

“Sideswipe,” the red one chimed in between gulps of Energon.

“Sunstreaker,” the gold twin said after putting his cube down. He looked expectantly at Prowl.

“What’s your name?” Sideswipe asked when he noticed the staring contest between his brother and the Enforcer.

“It’s Prowl.”

“Cool.” 

~~~

“What did they do this time?” Prowl asked without looking up from the datapad he was reading.

“We didn’t do anything!” Sideswipe whined and dropped to the floor by Prowl’s desk.

“It was an accident,” Sunstreaker muttered and flopped down next to his brother.

Prowl sighed and looked up at the mech who had picked the twins up from their school. He looked away and fidgeted in place.

“They were caught stealing treats in the cafeteria after a glitter bomb went off in one of the classrooms.” The mech finally said.

“That doesn’t explain why they were kicked out.”

The mech shuffled on his pedes and looked at a spot over Prowl’s shoulder and doorwing. “They were the ones who made the bomb and the teachers found two others hidden in the vents and they each had one in their subspaces. This also wasn’t the first time they’ve pulled such pranks and nicked things.”

Prowl sighed and put the datapad down. It appeared he’d have to find them a new school. Again.

~~~

Prowl tried to keep his helm raised high and his doorwings steady as he walked through the school’s hallways. A week. It had been one, single week and he’d already been called into the office by the school’s principal. This was one of the  _ last  _ schools Prowl had been able to find that would accept the twins that wasn’t considered a school for delinquent younglings. 

The office was quiet and the mech at the receptionist desk gave him a small, forced smile when Prowl explained he was there to meet with the principal. The Praxian was thankful he didn’t have to wait long to see the principal, a mini bot named Atlas. The mini bot explained the situation to Prowl with as much detail as he knew. Frankly, it was a lot. Prowl had arrested mech’s with much less evidence.

“The teacher involved wants to speak with you before we make any decisions,” Atlas said.

Prowl nodded. “Alright. Will I be meeting him here?”

“No, he was very firm. He wants you to meet him in his classroom, where the uh,” Atlas paused and cleared his intake. “Where the incident occurred.”

“Of course,” Prowl said and left on his own.

The walk to the classroom was equally as quiet as the one to the office and Prowl’s anxiety had him picking at a spot on his wrist. He paused in front of the door when he reached it and stared at it in trepidation. How could one door fill him with so much dread? He walked onto horrible murder scenes with barely a twitch and yet a youngling classroom had him about ready to make a run for it. He took a steadying vent and opened the door.

Neon pink, blue, and purple met him as he walked in. One of their teachers was perched on the front desk waiting for him. The mech was also covered in a riot of neon paint, not even his bright blue visor had managed to stay clean.

“Ya’ve got quite the servoful with those two helions, don’tcha?” The mech asked.

“You have no idea,” Prowl said with a heavy exhale of his vents. He knew this wasn’t the last of this kind of incident he’d have to deal with.

The mech just laughed. “I think I have an idea after all o’ this.” He waved a hand to indicate the rest of the room. Prowl was honestly shocked and a little impressed at the carnage. Paint had gotten  _ everywhere _ in the room.

“I am so sorry about this, uh,” Prowl froze. He didn’t know this mech’s name and the twins had never mentioned a Polyhexian teacher.

“Don’t be, an’ the name’s Jazz.” The black and white mech smiled. At least Prowl thought he was black and white under all the neon paint. “The school does this thing where they bounce new mechlin’s ‘round ‘til they find a good fit with a teacher. Today was mah first day with ‘em.”

“Oh Primus,” Prowl muttered.

Jazz just laughed again, jumping off the desk and walking up to Prowl. “Don’tcha worry. I like ‘em an’ asked Atlas ta let ‘em stay in mah class.”

“What?”

“Like I said, I like ‘em. Plus, they both explained it was an accident. The paint bomb wasn’t supposed ta go off yet, but it got jostled and then  _ boom _ .” Jazz was grinning and trying to suppress a snicker. “Honestly, it’s a nice change o’ pace. I used ta be like ‘em in school and I don’t mind the pranks, so long as they don’t do ‘em too often. An’ maybe not ta this extent again. As it is, I’ll make ‘em help clean up the room. Should keep ‘em from doin’ this for a while at least.”

Prowl could only blink and agree with Jazz. As long as the twins got to stay at this school, it would be fine. They could work things out with Jazz’s help; he was sure of it.

Jazz walked to the door and Prowl trailed after him. The Polyhexian paused at the door and looked back at Prowl with a smirk.

“Oh, and make sure they return the crystal sculpture they snagged in the chaos. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a mechlin’ with such quick fingers. Reminds mah o’ mahself at that age.” Jazz said and then vanished through the door.

Prowl just stared at the open doorway before following Jazz out into the hallway. His doorwings hung low on his back. Prowl kept trying to tell himself that if Jazz had turned out alright, then the twins would too. Or they’d just get better at their pranks and pilfering. And Prowl doubted he’d arrest them or turn them in even if they stole the matrix.

~~~

“Ya know it ain’t yar fault, right?” Jazz asked.

Prowl just sighed and looked at the mess in front of them. The twins had, somehow, remained untouched by the chaos around them that they’d caused. At least soap suds were easier to clean than glitter and paint. As long as nothing rusted or molded it would be okay.

He was thankful Jazz had helped them learn good pranks that didn’t end in so much collateral damage. He just wished he could curb their urge to snag things. He thought it was a leftover habit from their time on the streets, but it could’ve been around even before then. Not to mention Jazz had a habit of bringing things back that Prowl was sure he couldn’t have afforded. He was surrounded by miscreants and criminals and somehow, Prowl was fine with that.

“Yeah I know. I just wish they’d given us this one day.”

Jazz laughed. “Nah, they had ta do somethin’ ta remind us o’ how we met each other.”

While that may have been the case, Prowl still wished Sideswipe and Sunstreaker could’ve at least waited to pull off their prank until after their announcement. Now he and Jazz would have to wait longer to tell everyone gathered about their plans to bond in a few months.


End file.
